Fort Sill hosts local emergency managers to strengthen community ties

FORT SILL, Okla. (Feb. 25, 2016) -- Fire and law enforcement leaders from surrounding communities visited Fort Sill, Feb. 19, to learn about the post's missions, about Soldiers and their families and about improving their departments' collaboration of services with the post's Directorate of Emergency Services.

The visit was part of Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill Maj. Gen. John Rossi's Seven Pillars of Community, which stresses a shared sense of purpose between the local community and Fort Sill.

The pillars are: emergency services, housing, medical care, education, employment and retail, religious support and recreation. Previous pillar tours have invited educators (twice), realtors and clergy to the installation.

Joe Gallagher, FCoE and Fort Sill deputy to the CG, welcomed the nine emergency management guests in the morning at the Fort Sill Conference Center.

"The fenceline is really not a separator," Gallagher said. "What occurs on post affects what goes on downtown, and what occurs off-post affects what goes on on-post."

The post's 66,200 Soldiers, Marines, family members, international students, DoD civilians and contractors and retirees are fully vested in the Lawton-Fort Sill community, he said.

The deputy said it was important the leaders share how they perform emergency services, and to discuss how better integrated and synchronized their departments can be with DES for fires and emergencies on- and off-post.

Col. Paul Hossenlopp, FCoE chief of staff, thanked the leaders for attending and told them to enjoy their visit. Every brigade command team was present to welcome the leaders and to answer questions. Clint Langford, DES acting director, led the visitors throughout the day.

After watching a video of the Fort Sill missions, Lt. Col. J.P. Maddaloni, Outreach director, gave an overview of the Army's missions.

"This is your Army, this nation's Army," Maddaloni said. "What we are, like all of your great organizations, is people."

In his Defense Support of Civil Authorities brief, Chaplain (Col.) John Morris, installation command chaplain, spoke about the resources available to him to assist in disaster relief.

He said before he can provide civilian disaster aid four legal criteria have to be met. First, assistance must be asked for; the need must be acute; the support must be because there are no civilian clergy available; and the assistance will be temporary.

After the morning briefs, the group saw field artillery officer students perform live fire training on howitzers, visited the Industrial Training Complex and ate at Garcia Dining Facility.

In the afternoon, the emergency managers toured the Emergency Operations Center and received a briefing about the Incident Command Post here. The groups then went to a break out session where they discussed matters, such as mutual assistance agreements, communications, transport routes to respond to rural fires and more.

At the end of the day, Langford led a wrap-up session in Snow Hall, which was not for attribution.

One visitor described the digital simulations at Monti Hall as "awesome and informative." Another thanked the command for the red-carpet welcome. One manager said more of the invited emergency officials should have attended. While others said they didn't realize how much training went on at Fort Sill.

Ashleigh Hensch, Comanche County Emergency Management public information officer, said her department works closely with Fort Sill. She said she learned much from the tour.

"You know the background sounds you hear (in Lawton) are coming from artillery, but you never see it happen, so that was really cool to see," she said.

She recommended the tour to her peers: "It was very informative, and unless you see it, it's hard to visualize (what happens on post)."